Latest legal news

A leading judge in Malta was charged last week with bribery, sending shockwaves through the country's legal profession and triggering public concern over the reputation of the judiciary. | 13yrs

London-based global law firm Linklaters has signed a co-operation deal with Saudi Arabia's Abdulaziz AlGasim Law Firm - a practice that had previously sponsored magic circle rival Allen & Overy. | 13yrs

High court litigation in India is more likely to end in the Supreme Court in states geographically nearer to the country's capital, New Delhi, a research paper has revealed. | 13yrs

Only slightly more than a quarter of lawyers at firms in the US's sixth largest jurisdiction are women, a recent survey shows, rekindling concern that gender diversity is still not taking hold in the country's legal profession. | 13yrs

US law firm billing rates continued to creep up this year, figures released today show, despite corporate client efforts to cut tough bargains as a result of the slow economic recovery. | 13yrs

A round-up of recent global deals and the lawyers who made them happen | 13yrs

Britain's row over the liability of social media users continued to bubble this week as the wife of a senior political figure faced a £50,000 defamation suit for recent comments on Twitter. | 13yrs

No sooner had a gaggle of major global law firms piled into Australia to cut a variety of merger and joint venture deals, the jurisdiction is now reported to be contracting as local practices slash lawyer numbers. | 13yrs

A burgeoning love affair between global law firms and Brazil has hit a bump, with a London magic circle player cutting off an association in the wake of increased local protectionist measures. | 13yrs

Growth at the UK's leading law firms slowed for the fourth consecutive quarter, research reveals today, with top-10 practices the worst performers. | 13yrs

A leading lawyer has lashed out at the Indian authorities for dropping 'competent women' from a panel of practitioners designated to handle government litigation before the country's supreme court. | 13yrs

Trainee retention rates at leading English law firms remained relatively stable this year despite there being more newly-qualified lawyers for the system to absorb. | 13yrs

The British legal and political establishment was left reeling this week after publication of a long-awaited report into the 1989 murder of Northern Irish lawyer Pat Finucane. | 13yrs

Women professionals at US law firms are becoming scarcer, with research figures released this week showing the number of female lawyers dropping for the third year in a row. | 13yrs

China has overtaken the US as the world jurisdiction filing the most patent applications, according to UN figures released this week. | 13yrs

Wrangling broke out in South Africa this week following the death of renowned judicial figure Arthur Chaskalson, as the country's communist party was forced to back away from claims he had been a member for some 30 years until the early 1990s. | 13yrs

Europe's MPs gave the nod yesterday to much anticipated draft regulation for a unitary patent across the EU, in a move welcomed by specialist lawyers as a 'game changer' for business. | 13yrs

Use of English alternative dispute resolution (ADR) has tumbled by more than 20 per cent over the last three years, a survey released today claims. | 13yrs

Regulators of England's legal profession exhibit a worrying lack of understanding of consumer needs, according to the umbrella watchdog in its first report into the sector. | 13yrs